The 76ers say Joel Embiid hurt his meniscus in his left knee.
The Philadelphia 76ers stated Thursday that starting guard Joel Embiid has a lateral meniscus “injury” in his left knee and is expected to stay out at least until the weekend. This makes it harder for him to defend his title.
Multiple sources who are associated with the center say that Embiid is waiting for more tests to see if he tore his meniscus and how bad the injury might be.
Embiid hurt himself in the last minute of Tuesday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors. He missed his 13th game on Thursday, which was against the Utah Jazz.
A new rule in the league says that a player can’t be eligible for postseason awards if he or she doesn’t play in at least 65 of their team’s 82 regular-season games.
Embiid will be missing at least two more games. If he is out for even longer, his defense as MVP will be over.
The Philadelphia 76ers said Thursday that star player Joel Embiid hurt his left lateral meniscus when Golden State Athletics forward Jonathan Kuminga fell upon his leg during Tuesday night’s game.
Embiid won’t be able to play for the rest of the weekend while different ways to treat his injury are still being looked into.
Adrian Wojnarowski from ESPN was told by sources that it’s still not clear how Embiid along with the 76ers will treat the injury. Over the next few days, different options will be talked over.
Embiid missed three games last month because of pain in his left knee. He missed Saturday’s game in Denver or Monday’s game against the Trail Blazers of Portland because of the same problem.
Then he played again against Golden State on Tuesday night, but his knee seemed to hurt the whole game.
When Kuminga was going after a loose ball in the fourth quarter and accidentally fell on Embiid, he hurt him.
At some point, Embiid left the court on his own. He and the Sixers have been looking at the injury and possible ways to treat it for the previous couple of days.
While also averaging 11.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists, Embiid is the NBA’s top scorer with 35.3 points per game. He is also the league’s Most Valuable Player.
He scored 70 points the previous week against the San Antonio Spurs, and he now has more points than minutes played this season. Only Wilt Chamberlain has ever done that in a single season.
There was already no way for him to play in Thursday night’s game in Utah. This will be Embiid’s 13th missed game.
As of this season, the league’s fresh participation policy says that a player can only miss 17 games before they are no longer eligible to win the league’s top awards, such as MVP and All-NBA.
The current MVP has been diagnosed having a meniscus injury in his left knee. He will be out until at least the end of the month while the Sixers decide how to treat him, the team said Thursday.
The injury happened during Embiid’s game against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. He dove for the ball after being deprived on offense, and Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga hit him on the left leg, making it bend oddly. He was still on the court at the time.
People still can’t breathe for the Sixers. The team said Thursday that Embiid would miss the following day’s game so that they could check out his knee. Because of pain in the same knee, Embiid missed two games the week before.
The Sixers lost both games, with the Portland Trade Blazers beating them by 26 points. Overall, the team has lost four games in a row, and this report will not make them feel better.
We still don’t know how much time Embiid is going to miss. A minor meniscus issue will usually keep a player out for a few weeks, but Embiid’s season would probably be over if he had to have surgery on a major one.
The Sixers, who are currently fifth within the Eastern Conference thanks to their 29-17 record, would rather have the first option. They will likely be in the running when the NBA playoffs start in two and a half months.
Embiid is probably not going to be able to defend his MVP award because of the injury. Even though Embiid scores 35.3 points per game and leads the NBA in scoring right now, he has only played 12 games this season. After this weekend, the most games he can play in is 68.
As part of the NBA’s new rules, players must play at least 20 minutes in at least 65 games to be eligible for awards.
This is meant to discourage players from managing their workload. Along with Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Embiid was seen as one of the top candidates for MVP this season. But it looks like he’s now pretty much out of the running.